Piney Grove Methodist Church

06/04/2026

06/03/2026

We are looking forward to VBS!

I (pastor Andreas) was throughly impressed with the VBS team last year and everything they put together for the kids. It was fun(!) and exciting to see all the kids and their parents at church, doing meaningful and fun things. In my mind, VBS is one of the highlights of the year for our church.

This year the theme is "On the go with God" and how God is with us everywhere we go. Dinner is provided every evening, as is a free Adult Bible class starting at 7pm every night. That study will focus on the 4 shortest books in the Bible...how could they possible include anything worthwhile in less than 500 words?

We are partnering with Jordan-Matthews DECA to collect hygiene items, such as toothbrushes, shampoo, soap and the like. Love in action!

05/31/2026

Pastor's hindsight - what exactly happened?

Today was an interesting day at chuch, in a good way. I had been struggling with preparing the sermon earlier in the week due to health reasons and just simply not being able to pe*****te some resistance to the topic, which was "humility".

When I say resistance it has nothing to do with the church members and more so a spiritual type of resistance. As humility is almost universally seen as a good, its opposite (pride) isn't...and as we all know, we live at a time when pride is celebrated high and low. There's even a whole month dedicated to this most troublesome vice, and it doesn't align with Scripture.

Humility is fragile and there are many different kinds of pride trying to sneak in your life and take away your humility...and cause pride. There's spiritual pride, economic pride, egotistical pride, racial pride and many others.

Romans 1 is, pretty much, a description of what happens when pride has taken a hold of people to such a degree that it is what they celebrate...much like today.

The section in Romans beings with "God's wrath is being poured out...". It is a dangerous thing to flirt with pride and not take it seriously and remove it.

As it turns out, Romans 1 also offers the solution for us. If pride is trying to sneak into your life, there are two things you should/must do.

Worship God and not created people or things.
Hold on to the truth and don't suppress it with your actions and beliefs.

That's one reason I am very thankful for the Global Methodist Church. Though imperfect, it tries and tries well to hold on to the truth of God and it is very focused on worshipping the one true God.

As I preached last Sunday about holding on to the hope we have in Jesus, I wanted to tell people about how important it is to hold on to our humility in Jesus, through worship and truth. He promised to draw near to all who humble themselves, presumingly the opposite is also true. Let's not do that.

Let's not forget to carry each other's burdens and let's continue to live in the aftermath of the revival. Worship was good today. God was there. Amen to that.

/pastor Andreas

05/31/2026

5/31/26

05/26/2026

Sunday's Family Worship service has been moved to June 7th!

05/24/2026

Pastor's hindsight - what exactly happened?

This Sunday was our first Sunday of "Revival follow-up", meaning that it was the first Sunday after the Revival weekend and that I don't want to just let it fade away. It is important to remember and reflect and react to the Holy Spirit's moving among us.

I always need time to process whatever the Ury's are sharing and this time is no different.

I believe the Lord wanted me to process that stuff with you by preaching about "Hope" and how it connects with the Revival message of "Sanctifying grace".

Hope for a Christian is not a wish for something good to happen. A 50/50. It is a certainty, as long as it is in Christ. That is the key.

As we worshipped God and celebrated Memorial Sunday/Pentecost Sunday we also heard a message about the Christian hope, which is very different from the world's version.
Our hope is rooted in Jesus, who lead a sinless life and thus is completely reliable and trustworthy. Shockingly, only 50% of American Christians believe that...which is why so many people are uncertain about to many things, especially Heaven.

Paul tells us in 1 Thess. 4 that we who are in Christ by faith should encourage one another with this solid truth. We will rise again when Christ comes back, together with those who have died in Christ, and be with Him forever. That is just how it is.

We can know this by His Spirit, who came down from Heaven that first Pentecost. He is the "how" you and I can be in Jesus, and being in Jesus is how we can have a certain hope.

We lit candles for those who have gone before us and gathered in the cemetary where we encouraged one another that it is a fact, that we will meet those who have died in Christ again.

I always like that part of the church year, gathering in the cemetary to remember and be encouraged that we have a hope that the world doesn't know, a hope that every good-bye here is soon to be replaced with a "hello again".

The following covered dish was as good as ever. If only I had learned to pace myself when I fill my plate...

Tomorrow is our last "Rocky Soil Theology class" for the season. We will talk about "What is a Biblcal view of the End Times?".

I pray your week is enveloped by Jesus,
pastor Andreas

05/24/2026

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05/23/2026

Don't forget covered dish Memorial luncheon after church tomorrow!